The Şemsi Pasha Mosque (, also spelled ''Chamsi-Pasha'') is an Ottoman

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

located in the large and densely populated district of

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...

, in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

History

The Şemsi Pasha Mosque was designed by Ottoman imperial architect

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan (; , ; – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha (title), Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman Empire, Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman ...

for Şemsi Pasha. The Mosque is one of the smallest of Mimar Sinan's works in

, however its miniature dimensions combined with its picturesque waterfront location have made it one of the most attractive mosques in the city. The Mosque is a celebrated example of the chief architect's skill in organically blending

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

with the

natural Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

landscape.

Architecture

The complex stands on a roughly rectangular site aligned east–west with the

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

shoreline. The square, single domed mosque abuts the

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

at an angle, with the adjoining

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

of the donor projecting towards the waterfront. The garden, which over-looks the

, is surrounded on two sides by the madrasa, with the mosque on the third side and the sea wall on the fourth. The mosque itself is unusual in that the

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

of Şemsi Pasha is joined to the main building, divided from the interior by a grille. The chamber is crowned by a mirror vault at the height of the prayer hall drum. It has three casement windows facing the

and nine upper windows on three walls, adorned with coloured glass. Surrounding the Mosque is a larger complex, situated on the coast of

, also built by court architect Sinan near the Şemsi Pasha Palace and, according to the inscription over the mosque portal, construction was completed in 1580. In 1940, an extensive restoration project was undertaken by the General Directorate of Religious Endowments, supervised by architect Süreyya Yücel. The complex stands on a roughly rectangular site aligned east–west with the

shoreline. The square, single domed mosque abuts the coast at an angle, with the adjoining tomb of the donor projecting towards the waterfront. Its precinct is enclosed by an L-shaped madrasa to the west and south, and a seawall with grill-windows to the north, giving the impression that one is in a picture gallery looking at framed Bosphorus seascapes. The complex has two gates, one facing the land and the other facing the sea; the land gate opens to a private walled

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

which occupies the eastern precinct, behind the mosque's

qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

wall, which has become a

burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

site for generations of Şemsi Pasha. A

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word is derived from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*gatan'', meaning an opening or passageway. Synonyms include yett (which comes from the same root w ...

along the seawall opens into the precinct

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

, which is shared by the mosque and the madrasa. A secondary gate along the cemetery wall to the east also leads to this courtyard via a narrow passage. The mosque portico, which envelops the prayer hall to the northwest and southwest, is faced across the courtyard with the madrasa arcade, at a smaller scale. Both the portico and arcade are covered by shed roofs and have pointed

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

es carried on columns with diamond-cut capitals. The mosque portico was rebuilt during the 1940 restoration. A single

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

with a single balcony rises above it, adjoining the southwest corner of the prayer hall. Entered through a

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

portal on its northwest wall, the prayer hall is surmounted by a single

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

, which measures about eight meters in diameter. The transition to the

is achieved with four squinches over an octagonal drum pierced with four arched windows. The prayer hall has nine casement windows – two on each wall with an additional window on the southeast wall. Each casement is topped by an arched window with a different coloured

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

composition, and a circular window is placed above the mihrab. The simple

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

has a muqarnas hood. Muqarnas carvings were also used to highlight the springing of the squinch arches. The wooden

minbar A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and le ...

is a modern replacement. The

is attached to the prayer hall. It is entered from the outside from northwest, but opens into the prayer hall with a grilled archway. The chamber is crowned by a mirror vault at the height of the prayer hall drum. It has three casement windows facing the

and nine upper windows on three walls, adorned with colored glass. Decoration is limited to the stalactite carvings of the portal and painted floral and geometrical motifs on the mirror vault. Although its portal inscription was lost, inscriptive plaques over the archway in the prayer hall were preserved. The tomb, like the mosque and the complex, are made of cut

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

. The L-shaped madrasa has twelve domed cells and a large classroom, all fronted by an arcade whose shed roof is carried by nineteen

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

. Cells are placed all in a row except at the northern end, where a single cell encloses the arcade before the seawall. The classroom, which is seven meters squared, occupies the centre of the western wing of and projects beyond the madrasa wall. It is surmounted by a dome carried on squinches and raised on an octagonal drum. There are six windows on three of the classroom's walls, leaving the western wall for a furnace and two shelving niches. Each madrasa cell has two windows, a furnace and one or two shelving niches. The arcade was enlarged following the restoration and the madrasa was refurnished to house a

Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

in 1953 with the classroom use as the reading room. An additional room with privy cells is attached at the end of the southern wing.

Gallery

File:Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque tele2.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque from ferry File:Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque 0297.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque exterior of complex File:Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque 0502.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha medrese across garden from mosque front File:Şemsi Paşa Complex, Üsküdar, Istanbul (16034805140).jpg, View from the Bosphorus File:Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque 0503.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque from side File:Şemsi Ahmet Paşa Mosque in 2014 6255.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque interior File:Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque 6256.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque dome File:Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque 6257.jpg, Semsi Ahmet Pasha mosque window File:Şemsi Ahmet Paşa in 2014 6254.jpg, Şemsi Ahmet Paşa mosque founders grave

References

* Egli, Hans G. 1997. Sinan: An Interpretation. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, 138–140. * Kuran, Aptullah. 1986. Mimar Sinan. Istanbul: Hürriyet Vakıf Yayınları, 193–196. * Gültekin, Gülbin. 1994. "Semsi Pasa Külliyesi." In Dünden Bugüne Istanbul Ansiklopedisi. Istanbul: Tarih Vakfi, VII, 158–159. * Necipoglu, Gülru. 2005. The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. London: Reaktion Books, 452–498. * Sözen, Metin. 1988. Sinan: Architect of the Ages. Istanbul: Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 312–315.

External links

* Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism �
A 360° panorama of Şemsi Pasha Mosque

Images of Şemsi Ahmet Pasha Mosque

18 pictures in a gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semsi Pasha Mosques completed in the 1580s Religious buildings and structures completed in 1580 Üsküdar Mimar Sinan buildings Ottoman mosques in Istanbul Mosque buildings with domes in Turkey Bosphorus Mosque buildings with minarets in Turkey Sunni mosques in Turkey

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References

External links